The Four Lads made numerous television appearances including the award-winning PBS special, Moments to Remember.[citation needed]

The current incarnation of the group features the original member Frank Busseri (bass), plus Don Farrar (lead tenor), Aaron Bruce (second tenor), and Alan Sokoloff (baritone).

The original quartet grew up together in Toronto, Ontario, and were members of St. Michael's Choir School, where they learned to sing. The founding members were Corrado "Connie" Codarini, bass (died April 28, 2010); John Bernard "Bernie" Toorish (born March 2, 1931), tenor; James F. "Jimmy" Arnold (January 4, 1932 – June 15, 2004), lead; and Frank Busseri, baritone and group manager. Codarini and Toorish had formed a group with two other St. Michael's students, Rudi Maugeri and John Perkins, who were later to become founding members of another group, The Crew-Cuts.

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The group was known variously as The Otnorots (taken from the name "Toronto" spelled backwards) and The Jordonaires (not to be confused with a similarly named group, The Jordanaires, that was known for singing background vocals on Elvis Presley's hits). When Maugeri and Perkins left the group to concentrate on their schoolwork, Codarini and Toorish joined with Arnold and Busseri in a new quartet. At home, they practiced until they achieved their clean-cut harmonies, whether for spirituals, sacred music, or pop. They originally called themselves The Four Dukes but found out that a Detroit group already used that name, so changed it to The Four Lads. In 1950 they began to sing in local clubs and soon were noticed by scouts. Recruited to go to New York, they were noticed by Mitch Miller, who asked them to do backup for some of the artists he recorded. One of these artists, Johnnie Ray, became a major hit in 1951 with "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried" with the Four Lads backing him. This made them well known. In 1954 in Manhattan, the Four Lads had a recording session and decided they needed young voices. Lillian Pasciolla, and her friend who was President of the Four Lads Fan Club were visiting and were invited to sing "Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer" with them. They are both in the original recording along with the Four Lads.

Their first single was "The Mocking Bird" on Columbia's Okehlabel (master #ZSP-9710), released in 1952, with "I May Hate Myself in the Morning" (#ZSP-9711) on the B-side. "The Mocking Bird" was re-recorded for release on the Columbia label twice in subsequent years.

Codarini was replaced in 1962 by Johnny D'Arc (who remained with the Lads until 1982), and Sid Edwards replaced Toorish in the early 1970s.

D'Arc died in 1999, aged 60. Arnold died of lung cancer in Sacramento, California, at the age of 72. Codarini died on April 28, 2010, in Concord, NC, at the age of 80. Connie also owned a restaurant since the early 1980s in Medina, Ohio called Penny's Poorhouse, named after his wife. They came to Medina showing Great Danes and didn't leave until the restaurant was sold in 2007.[3]

Today, a reconstituted group, with original singer Busseri, performs live.